The present invention relates to a fast breeder reactor and, more specifically, to a fast breeder reactor in which one side of a core support for supporting a reactor core is held by a side wall of a reactor vessel.
A fast breeder reactor of this type has been disclosed n British Pat. No. 1 536 645 entitled "Horizontal Baffle For Nuclear Reactors" published on Dec. 20, 1978. This patent is concerned with a fast breeder reactor wherein low temperature liquid sodium in a lower portion of the reactor vessel flows in one path through the reactor core in heat transfer relationship with fuel assemblies resulting in high temperature sodium, and other low temperature liquid sodium flows around the reactor as a by-pass flow path. These paths join at an outlet portion for the liquid sodium from the reactor vessel. However, such outlet portion of the liquid sodium is subject to damage or breakage due to thermal striping at the region in which the high temperature sodium passed through the reactor core and the low temperature sodium traced around the core join. In general, mechanical strength of a core support decreases as the temperature surrounding the same increases. Thus, the core support is subject to damage due to thermal striping.